The second volume of Once & Future takes the reader back into the worlds of not just Arthurian legend (with a major twist) but brings in stories of others as Granny and Duncan face off against a twisted version of Sir Galahad.
If you haven't picked up volume one of this superb you really need to do so as this story continues to develop into a world where King Arthur is a threat to Anglo-Saxons as some extreme nationalists discovered before they were sliced up. Arthur is here to stand for the old Britons and we're the enemy!
This time we see a wily old magician appear in both the Otherworld Camelot where Arthur and his undead forces are preparing to invade Britain but also in England as his Machiavellian scheming begins to take shape.
A faux robbery distracts our heroes as Merlin sends his minion to steal an old poem from the British Library. Enter Beowulf and he's pissed! There's so much more happening in this fast paced adventure that centres around an old peoples home. So no spoilers.
Just remember as soon as you are aware of the stories and their monsters they'll be coming for you!!
I've already pre-ordered volume Three which is due out in August.
One of the most popular BBC sitcoms of all time has to be Dad's Army featuring the antics of the Home Guard unit protecting the seaside town of Walmington-upon-Sea, a fictional town on the south coast of England.
This series featured some of the best character actors that the country had to offer back in the late sixties/seventies with Arthur Lowe, Clive Dunn, John Le Mesurier, John Laurie, James Beck, Ian Lavender, Bill Pertwee, Frank Williams, Ed Williams and not forgetting the regular ladies Janet Davies and Pamela Cundell.
The show lasted for 80 programmes in 9 seasons, longer than the war that it was supposed to be set in! There was even a radio adaptation of 67 episodes starring the original cast (sans the late James Baeck) whose role of Private Walker was played by various actors.
There was even a radio only spin off series called It Sticks Out Half a Mile which featured Wilson, Hodges and Pike in 13 episodes in one season.
There were six Annuals issued between 1972 and 1977 (cover dated 1973 & 1978). The 1974 one is a mixture of text stories and features plus two comic strips and with good likenesses of the actors.
The fictional characters of Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson, Corporal Jones, Privates Pike, Fraser, Walker and of course their "medic" Godfrey will remain in our hearts forever.
As jobsworth Air Raid Warden would say "Put those lights out", except this show will always be with us.
I've chosen a radio episode A Stripe for Frazer to go with this review as it is lost to TV but not to audio!
First appearing in 1940 Captain America has become one of the most iconic figures on the American comic scene first with Timely in the forties and then again with Marvel in the sixties. Steve Rogers wasn't the first (that would be The Shield from MLJ shortly to revived once more by Archie comics) but has outlasted every other.
This special edition sees a team of Marvel writers and artists re-imagine not just three classic stories but also do this with a different team on each page which turned out not to be so jolting as one would imagine.
First up is Meet Captain America which unsurprisingly come from Captain Marvel Comics #1 which relates a very simple origin story and the background to the concept. This is followed by Riddle of the Red Skull from the same issue which is a very different take on the villain from the one we are used to.
Finally we the one of the most famous "Silver Age" stories from Avengers #4 Captain America Joins the Avengers and part of the building blocks that created the modern Marvel Universe.
Captain America is one of my favourite Marvel characters but I'm long out of touch with what's going on today. However this is one issue that was worth picking up. Comes with two covers of which I chose the variant with the original shield.
The Colin Baker period of Doctor Who has many detractors though I have to say in retrospect I quite enjoy most of these stories from the period and was in any case always a big fan of Peri who features as his companion in 1985's Doctor Who annual.
I picked this up on a whim after buying an earlier Tom Baker edition which I'll take a look at in due course but I have to say the lack of comic stripes made this a disappointment for me. There's plenty of txt adventures but these were never something I was particularity interested in even as a child. Books are one thing and I enjoy reading but comics and annuals well for me they should be a pictorial format.
Colin Baker was also in the role when Doctor Who Magazine hit it's 100th issue in 1984 and is still going strong today.
There are a couple of features in this edition a look at how sets were designed plus a look into the special effects used in the show back then. New technology has moved both films and TV in a completely new direction undreamed of back then but you have to admire the budget limited ingenuity of those working on the programme.
For anyone not convinced that Colin Baker got a raw deal as the sixth Doctor please pick up any of the Big Finish audio productions featuring Colin. The character got a lot more opportunity to develop than the BBC allowed him to do.
It's not often I take interest in or would even like "westerns" these days. As much as I liked them as a child growing up I grew out of them especially as I began to feel sympathy for the Indians and most of the films became a bit repetitive. There always have been the odd exception and although I never collected western comics as such the odd issue of Bat Lash and Jonah Hex found their way into my hands over the years.
In particular I enjoyed the "New 52" version of Jonah Hex and his entry to modern world. Sadly since then nothing from the genre has attracted me except the re-run of the The Alamo with John Wayne and company though whether it's a "western" in the true sense of the word is debatable.
However my recent foray into the world of Kickstarter projects brought Western Noir to my attention and despite it being one of the more expensive items I took a risk and although somewhat late in arriving the volume was certainly well worth the wait.
Western Noir tells the tale of Josiah Black a former lawman turned drifter following the murder of his wife and child. He gets recruited to do a job for a lady in distress and in the process takes down a killer who is hunting for supernatural threats to man. For atonement he dons the goggles necessary to see through their disguises and works for the dead mans employer.
A series of adventures takes place but is everything as it seems?
An excellent book with good art, sold story telling and scripting. The author promises that Josiah Black will return. I certainly hope so.
One of the more popular recent creations in comic books (most major characters originated back in the forties!) is Harley Quinn and rightly so as her adventures are a light relief from the dark DC Universe that exists these days.
This story takes place after the Heroes in Crisis mini-series which I collected but stopped reading because frankly I thought it wasn't good enough. The fact that the problem with Poison Ivy spins out of that can be safely ignored. The reader just needs to know she died, well sort of.
I actually remember and purchased a copy of Ivy's first appearance back in the sixties, one of a whole number of key issues I didn't hang on to sadly. Still got hold of the facsimile edition! Since then Ivy has progressed both as a character and in power to something a lot different and a connection to "the Green" on a "Swamp Thing" level.
The Floronic Man (or Moronic man as Harley puts it) is their trail and wants Ivy for his own nefarious purposes. Love that word "nefarious" a word I picked up from comics back in my schooldays, and they say comics aren't educational.
The Road Trip begins and the girls end up trying to get help from the Mad Hatter of all people. Not going to go well that one. The duo also run into Batwoman when New York is attacked by plants and Ivy wrongly gets the blame. Harley keeps telling Kate that she wants to be a hero but does the Batwoman listen, well eventually.
An entertaining story that was originally published as a six issue miniseries. This hardback edition comes with a gallery of all the covers including variants. Rating: 4.5 Stars. (Recommended)
I haven't followed the regular Batman comic for some considerable time. The introduction of The Court of Owls" in the "New 52" left me cold and the constant crossovers made collecting both too difficult and far too bloody expensive (DC please note). In recent weeks I have either got around to reading and or picking up some Batman self contained mini-series or hardback collections so given this volume promised some extras to the The Joker War in Batman I thought I'd give it a go,
Trouble is so much had already happened by the time the opening pages of the book had even started. I don't know if they advertised a "prequel" collection or not (it's too late for me to go looking for one having read this book) but if there is such a thing do pick it up.
In previous issues it appears The Joker has taken control of the Wayne fortune, Wayne enterprises and is already using Bat-toys against the Bat himself as well as causing mayhem in Gotham City itself. There is a volunteer "Joker Army" on the rampage and most of the other villains appear to be in hiding, at least The Penguin, Riddler and Scarecrow certainly are.
Mr Freeze and his children (?) certainly aren't and there's some new girlfriend for The Joker called Punchline. At least Harley is practically on the right side of justice for once and has to pull Batman out of a haze. Also (in his own comic before this) Nightwing has become The Joker's Bitch as well.
At least I'm familiar with most of the rest of the Bat-family but who the hell are Orphan and Signal? Where's Damien? Was that Cassandra? Alfred's dead, I knew that but not how or when.
As a result of the way the story was constructed I wasn't overly impressed at first and there were some blips in the way the action flowed as a result of the crossover format. It does make sense the more you read but this collection does illustrate the problem with crossovers being collected even with additional bits.
One last problem was I did find the way the volume was bound made a lot of the text difficult to read.
One of the programmes that I remember from my childhood was Z Cars based on the adventures of of a Lancashire Police force unit designated "Z" to deal with rising crime. Starting in 1962 Z Cars ran for no less than 801 episodes until 1978 when the show finally ended. Obviously the later shows stick in my mind better but the opening black & white versions credits does bring back memories.
This was the programme that featured the young (and relatively less eccentric) Brian Blessed along with a number of other stars from the sixties including James Ellis (Bert Lynch), Stratford John (DI Barlow) and Frank Windsor (DS Watt). The latter two became the central figures of the spin-off programme Softly, Softly another childhood favourite.
Z Cars was popular enough to have an annual published as early as 1963 and was followed by three more from World Publishers who seemed to dominate the TV related annuals market in the UK. This edition contained a mixture of text and comic strip adventures featuring our favourite police men. There were also photos of the four main stars and a feature on how police cars were called to the scene.
This clip features the opening segment of the very first programme.
Marvel Superheroes was the final incarnation of their very first UK weekly comic which had originally started as the Mighty World of Marvel back in 1972 having briefly been published for a short 23 weeks as simply Marvel Comic before transforming into the monthly Marvel Superheroes monthly until it's cancellation and merger with The Daredevils.
There was one tie-in Annual published in 1980 and classed as the 1981 edition as per the British practice of using the following year for longer shelf life though not really necessary as the date was not printed on the cover.
The comic contains three stories., kicking off with a reprint of The X-Men from September 1963 which had seen print more than a few times in Fantastic from Power Comics back in the sixties and Marvel UK itself. The story was produced in two parts book-ending the other two features and each section uses a mixture of black & white combined with blue for part one and red for part two.
Next up was a story from the first series of Ms Marvel which started in 1977. This saw carol Danvers then still an unknown newbie in the Marvel Universe use her powers of premonition to stop a radioactive truck killing thousands of people as the result of sabotage. Carol is confronted by The Vision who thinks she is a super-villain and the inevitable hero on hero super-fight starts while the real villain nearly succeeds.
Finally in this short volume there is a seventies Avengers story, A Ghost Of Stone in which a the Black Knight now made of stone returns to exact his revenge on the heroes that abandoned him to his fate, but not is all as it seems. When is it?
The joys of being retired means being able to stay up late and get up late except for this morning as the post came extraordinarily early so coffee made, I was able to lie back down and read this splendid missing comic from the seventies, the much missed Blazer!
Of course there was no such thing but this kick-starter project from Steve MacManus of 2000AD fame along with various artists and the publishers of The 77 attempts to recreate the feel of a comic back in the year that I left school. Complete with editorial and fun pages including a "letters" section this comic delivered and more!
First up of the five stories was Godwin's Law a tale of of war, loss and revenge set in the Burmese Jungle with excellent art from Dan Cornell. A Baptist Minister and his "flock" (he refers to them as "sisters" but Nins they are not) have an accident as they flee the Japanese advance. Only two survive and Godwins revenge begins. This would make a great series!
Next up is Derringer and So'n about a Vietnam veteran Jack Derringer and his adopted son operating a protection service. All very seventies indeed..... though I'm not entirely sure the same can be said about the following feature Dominica's Ring which was shall we say a little "psychedelic" in presentation and like something out of a sixties Hammer Horror film. Not hat's a bad thing, far from it. This was my second favourite story in Blazer!
Now I don't normally read sports stories (and nearly didn't having spent my childhood avoiding football) but did give this a try. I'm not sure if drug stories were the "thing" most Roy of the Rovers fans would expect but it is what it is.
Finally we come to the rather tongue in cheek Sheriffs of Nottingham which clicked after a couple reads as the caffeine kicked in and the dialogue began to make sense. A comedy horror in the making.
Overall a nice package. Plenty of potential here but how the publishers will juggle Blazer! with their on-going The 77 which was delayed by this production remains to be seen. Would I come back for more? The answer is yes.
When the last issue of 2000AD arrived I wasn't the only one in the house who noticed the advert for the new Rebellion film Schools Out Forever which stars Giles or rather Anthony Head of Buffy fame. My girlfriend a dig fan of the horror genre wanted to watch this so when the spoilt brats had their interview on the telly we rented this movie via Amazon Prime and were not disappointed. Far from it!
Given we've been in the middle of a lock down as the result of a pandemic being entertained by a film about a pandemic, albeit an almost terminal one for mankind may seem strange but this movie is both frightening, heartwarming and gory all at the same time.
The accompanying text to this trailer sets the scene:
No sooner has 15-year-old Lee Keegan been expelled from his private school than a pandemic spreads like wildfire around the globe. With his father dead and mother trapped abroad, Lee is given one instruction: go back to school. But safety and security at St. Mark's School for Boys is in short supply. Its high walls can't stop the local parish council from forming a militia and imposing martial law, while inside the dorms the end of the world is having a dangerous effect on his best friend and his unrequited crush on the school nurse isn't helping him concentrate on staying alive.
The latest issue of the hobby journal Comics Unlimited is now out and like all previous issues is full of articles covering both American and British comics. I tend to read the articles that interest me personally most first then work through the other features some of which tackle subjects I've not come across before. More on that later.
Having just read (and reviewed) Infinite Frontier #0 I turned to part two of Tony Ingram's essay on DC Continuity which takes us through the period of Crisis On Infinite Earths aftermath, attempted fixes including Zero Hour to Infinite Crisis which whilst familiar to me was a useful reminder of how all this fitted together. I had forgotten about the Time Trapper's little Time Bubble.
The next article I chose for openers was the continuing series on the history of The Defenders as I was no longer reading this comic after #100 and the transformation into The New Defenders which I might have to grab a few copies of one of these days.
Next up was the short piece on Captain Hurricane (and his sidekick Maggot) from Valiant. I loved that series. Tongue in cheek and as the author Stephen Hooker says full of stuff today's PC censors wouldn't like with references to Krauts, Eyties and Nips among the terms that would no longer be acceptable but in time of war were certainly used by soldiers and civilians alike. Like the author I am neither xenophobic (and was a "remainer") and certainly not racist. Context is everything.
There are pieces by Michael Mead on Mr Miracle and The Forever People, the latter being my least favourite part of the otherwise excellent Fourth World saga by Jack Kirby. The classic story This Man,This Monster by Lee and Kirby also gets a feature as One Of The Greatest Stories Ever Told.
Starman and Quasar get features for the unfamiliar. I have read a fair amount of Starman and was rather a fan of the one featured in Adventure Comics which should get collected in this fan's opinion but Quasar was very much a secondary Marvel character I didn't take much notice of if I'm honest so the article about the 90's version (which lasted 60 issues) was interesting.
As a young child I remember reading TV 21 and the short-lived Joe 90 comics occasionally but had all but forgotten about Zero-X which I did have a look at in some back issues before reading this background article. However I do recall the wonderful art of Frank Bellamy whose work is a major feature in this issue.
There's also a good article on the Spider-Man drug story (which I've never had the opportunity to read) which took place before the possibly better remembered Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories published later. Stan lee's act helped break down the stifling comics code and did so for a worthy cause. Drugs aren't clever kids.
In fact there's quite a lot to read in this bumper issue including an interview with Don Glut, John Silvestri and a fascinating piece on Joe D McFee and his work on titles such as Amazonia and wrestling comics neither of which I'd ever heard of. Not interested in sport but I'd give Amazonia a try if I ever come across a copy.
There's lots more including Glen B Fleming's Hatch comic strip (news on that to follow!) and I have to say Comics Unlimited is as always a good read and it's bookshelf format more than welcome. Did I mention the wraparound cover by Russ Leach?
1988: The first Red Nose Day takes place, GCSE exams begin, the Church of England announces the ordination of women priests will start in 1992, throughout the year the war with the terrorist IRA continues both at home and abroad as IRA terrorists are shot in Gibraltar and British soldiers murdered in Netherlands. Ian Paisley describes the Pope as the "anti-Christ.
Pubs are now allowed to open all day, Edwina Currie becomes the first Minister to resign for telling the truth about salmonella in eggs, Roald Dahl's Matilda and Steven Hawkings Brief History of Time are published.
Kylie Minogue has four number ones with I Should Be So Lucky, The Loco-motion, Je Ne Sais Pas Porquoi and Got to be Certain. Bros have three number one's with I Owe You Nothing, Drop The Boy and When Will I Be Famous. Sabrina hits the top spot with Boys. Kylie's self titled first album hits the top spot as does Push by Bros. Belinda Carlisle takes the top spot with her album Heaven & Earth.
I was going to post Sabrina's original video which I remember seeing on TV but because a nipple shows it's been age restricted and can only be seen on You Tube but I'm actually a big Kylie fan so here's the lady herself in a much more family friendly video.
First up in Look-in is a strip based on the children's programme 7T3 another which I'd never heard of so here's a clip.
The featured band in this issue was 5-Star of which I was never particularly a fan but they were widely played on the radio and in the clubs . This was the era of the 12" remix. When this single was released 5-Star were just returning from a break because of falling record sales. They had a good run between 1985 and 1987 but by the end of this year the band were out of the Top 40 for good.
The back page features an "Information file" on Dolph Lungren as HE-Man in Masters of the Universe which didn't do too well at the cinema but I really liked it but then I never really grew up....I mean what's the point of getting old if you can't be childish from time to time?
So here to finish is a clip from the movie. Yes I know it was released in 1987 but he's in this issue and that's that before anyone posts a comment on Facebook!
And finally some comics we were reading (or should have been)
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Thank you to everyone who has joined me not just in this look-in to the Eighties but those who followed the original Seventies series which inspired these posts! I hope you return to this blog for a more nostalgia with British American comics, TV, film and more!
1987: The year begins with Enid Blyton's publishers replacing Golliwogs with Gnomes due to accusations of racism, Terry Waite is taken hostage in Beirut, Margaret Thatcher is reelected. The fifteenth James Bond film The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton as 007. David Owens stands down as SDP Leader and the party merges with the Liberals.
IKEA open's it's first UK store in Warrington and October see's two storms, a hurricane that kills 23 people and Black Friday wipes out billions on the London Stock Exchange after Wall Street crashes. The government announces the creation of the Poll Tax and Fireman Sam begins broadcasting.
Madonna had two number one singles, La Isla Bonita & Who's That Girl, whilst T'Pau hit the top spot with China In Your Hand. The American band Hooter had it's only Top 30 entry with the very much under-rated (IMO) with Satellite.
Madonna of course featured as the Centre piece in this issue but not with the usual pin-up, rather a gallery of photo's. The front page of Look-in alluded to her number one single Who's That Girl!
The big TV show we all watched (regardless of age) was The A-Team who also had a strip in Look-in at this time....as did Inspector Gadget!
Plus the comics:
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And return here tomorrow for the last part of this mega-series of posts (phew) with A "Look-in" to 1988!
1985: The BBC launch a magazine to challenge Look-in on January 29th. It doesn't last long.... Meanwhile the first mobile phone call is made in the UK, Eastenders appears on TV, the Heysel Football riots take place and 39 people die. English clubs are banned from playing in Europe for an indefinite period by UEFA.
The fourteenth James Bond film A View to a Kill with Roger Moore is released, Live Aid Concerts raise £50 million for the Ethiopian famine. Neil Kinnock makes his famous speech attacking the Trotsykyist Militant group who sent out redundancy notices by taxi to Liverpool Council workers and Margaret Atwood publishes The Handmaid's Tale.
Amongst the top selling singles that year were Power of Love by Jennifer Rush, Frankie from Sister Sledge and Madonna's Into The Groove. Top selling albums included Born In The USA from Bruce Springstein, Hounds of Love by Kate Bush and Meat is Murder from The Smiths.
The BEEB obviously concentrated on BBC programmes and had features on Blue Peter and The SaturdaySuperstore with comic strips from various shows including Automan which I don't recall at all, One To One, Grange Hill, Bananaman and Tripods.
One of the obvious choices for the magazine was to have the input of the Blue Peter team. By 1985 I really wasn't watching the programme any more as I was never at home when it was broadcast and felt I'd outgrown it anyway. The presenters consisted of Michael Sundrin, Simon Groom and Janet Ellis. The following clip albeit from the previous year shows all three having a look at the special effects used in Tripods.
The BEEB ended without announcement with #20 published on June 11th 1985 less than six months after it's launch. There woud be a slightly more successful publication in a few years called Fast Forward but for now Look-in remained unchallenged.
